Community Collaboration and Co-Design

Strategic Rationale and Evidence Base

Strategic Importance

Community management is strategically important because it enables HEP, RA and other data-intensive communities to align around shared priorities, move from fragmented initiatives to a coherent roadmap, and support innovation, interoperability and long-term sustainability in the European compute and data continuum. Building on the SPECTRUM CoPe and existing networking structures, it must go beyond coordination alone by also addressing human-capacity needs, including stable roles, recognised responsibilities, organisational incentives, and retention of key engineering and software expertise. It should also ensure continuity beyond individual projects and maintain structured links with international partners, as major infrastructures operate in a global ecosystem.

Current State

The current landscape offers strong potential for closer convergence across data-intensive domains, but this has not yet been fully translated into coordinated action. Beyond technical integration, the main challenges lie in aligning priorities, collaboration models and governance across diverse communities, while also making European opportunities easier to understand and engage. A more structured coordination mechanism is therefore needed to connect communities, map EU opportunities, and support coherent engagement with international partners while preserving domain-specific needs.

Community Evidence

Key gaps relate not only to technology, but also to coordination and governance. These include: limited long-term resource planning aligned with community needs; insufficiently structured feedback loops between user communities, research infrastructures,service providers and policy stakeholders (such as EOSC and EuroHPC); insufficient involvement of all relevant stakeholders in strategic discussions and decision-making; and the need to better connect shared priorities with domain-specific requirements. Consultation feedback also underlines the importance of maintaining explicit links with European and international initiatives so that collaboration leads to operational convergence rather than parallel or fragmented efforts.

Technical Foundation

The increasing data and computing demands of HEP and RA create a strong basis for deeper collaboration across scientific communities, research infrastructures and e-Infrastructures. Although the two domains differ in maturity and implementation pathways, they increasingly require a common set of capabilities, including sustainability, security, federation, orchestration, distributed software, and support across the compute and data continuum. In this context, the SPECTRUM Technical Blueprint provides not only a technical reference point, but also a shared framework for dialogue, coordination and joint planning across communities working with heterogeneous infrastructures.

European Alignment

The scientific use cases of the SPECTRUM project (WP5) are rooted in major ESFRI projects in HEP and RA, notably SKAO and HL-LHC, as well as ERICs such as LOFAR and JIVE. In this context, community management has an important role in connecting these communities with the broader European landscape, including key initiatives such as EOSC and EuroHPC, as well as related programmes and networks (e.g. APPEC, ASTRONET, RadioNet, Opticon, Europlanet, Solarnet, JENA, ESCAPE). It is also important to address the still not fully articulated alignment between EOSC and EuroHPC, which remains a source of complexity for communities seeking coherent European support across data and compute services. Strengthening these links through structured dialogue, coordination and mutual visibility is essential to help communities better understand, access and shape the European opportunities relevant to their needs (cf. Strategic Outcomes section). This also supports closer alignment between research infrastructures, e-Infrastructures and scientific communities, while reinforcing Europe’s capacity to act coherently in the international data-intensive science landscape.

Target Outcomes and Impact Assessment

Strategic Outcomes

Beyond identifying requirements for a sustainable European compute and data continuum to support the scientific exploitation of major European RIs, the effort in community management seeks to build bridges with similar existing and forthcoming multi-disciplinary initiatives, fostering long-term alignment and collaboration. Effective community management depends not only on technical coordination, but on stable human capacity, clear representation, explicit scope, and durable cross-initiative interfaces, since organisational, political, and workforce factors are often as decisive as the underlying technology.

Success Indicators

Successful community management can be identified through clear indicators such as: sustained participation of diverse stakeholders across the HEP and RA domains; the development of a collaboration path with other scientific communities; the adoption of a shared community charter ensuring long-term sustainability; effective feedback loops that influence technical and policy outcomes; ease of access; and the creation of structured links with related European and international initiatives. Additional indicators include the establishment of stable community-facing roles and retention pathways for key technical expertise, and the production of clear stakeholder mapping describing how communities are represented.

European Impact

Addressing the numerical challenges of HEP and RA science use cases is a critical step towards maximising the impact of major ESFRI and ERIC projects in these domains. The SPECTRUM Community of Practice is a central instrument in this effort, providing a visible and structured framework for coordination across scientific communities, research infrastructures and e-Infrastructures. Through this mechanism, the disruptive data and computing demands of infrastructures such as SKA and the HL-LHC can be articulated collectively, connected more effectively with the EOSC and EuroHPC ecosystems, and used to reinforce the bridges between them. In doing so, the SPECTRUM CoP helps create alignment, foster synergies and consolidate Europe’s leadership in data-intensive science.

Implementation Pathway and Stakeholder Roles

Implementation Phases

• Short-term (Years 1-3): Strengthen and support the established CoP by developing further the charter developed during the SPECTRUM project, ensuring its continuity and long-term sustainability, and, where relevant, aligning or merging activities with existing networks and consortia. In the computing domain, the CoP should also develop shared metrics, tools and methodologies to assess usage, performance, efficiency and best practices, thereby enabling the definition of common indicators, the collection and analysis of operational data, and the exchange of knowledge across data-driven research communities. This shared knowledge base should be considered a key output in its own right.
• Medium-term (Years 3-5): Foster interaction, coordination, and potential convergence with similar initiatives operating in related research domains. Medium-term actions should also include formalisation of cross-initiative interfaces, including a maintained inventory of relevant European and international programmes, infrastructures and policy processes, together with named liaison functions and periodic review points.
• Long-term (Years 5+): Maintain continuous coordination and strategic alignment across the broader network of scientific communities.

Stakeholder Roles

• Scientific Communities - Responsibilities: dedicate adequate resources to identifying technical needs, collaborate with other scientific communities as a well structured CoP, work with e-Infrastructures on technical developments, and designating clearly identified individuals to coordinate these activities - Benefits: establish a clear pathway to solutions for computing and data requirements, while providing a well-defined interlocutor for technical, political, and financial discussions
• Research Infrastructures - Responsibilities: empower community-led initiatives by allocating dedicated expertise and fostering operational collaboration across RIs - Benefits: unlock the full potential of existing infrastructures, ensuring efficiency, complementarity, and long-term sustainability through coordinated bottom-up actions
• Computing & Data Service Providers / e-Infrastructures - Responsibilities: actively engage in evaluating operational and funding schemes in collaboration with RIs and the scientific community - Benefits: establish a clear pathway to fulfilling their mission of advancing open science, enabling high-performance computing and data-intensive research, and supporting scientific progress
• Policy Makers / Funding Bodies - Responsibilities: facilitate coordination between scientific communities, RIs, and Computing & Data Service Providers, supporting joint development activities through dedicated and long term funding schemes - Benefits: ensure the optimal use of investments, maximising scientific and technological return while minimising inefficiencies and financial waste.

Resource Needs

To fulfill the objectives listed above and make community management efficient, scientific communities require a combination of resources: dedicated human expertise to identify needs and liaise with partners; financial support through flexible and sustained fundings; access to infrastructures for co-design and validation. Resource needs also include recognised career paths and retention measures for research software engineers, infrastructure engineers, and community coordinators, as consultation feedback repeatedly identifies workforce instability and competition with industry as a strategic risk to sustainability. Together, these resources enable scientific communities to address computing and data requirements effectively, coordinate across domains, and act as credible interlocutors in technical, political, and financial discussions

Critical Dependencies

Effective community management has critical dependencies on long-term human and technical resource commitments and interoperable tools. A continuous dialogue between RIs, e-Infrastructures, and policy makers must be ensured, supported by formal agreements, cross-community working groups, and structured feedback loops. Together, these elements enable alignment with European initiatives like EOSC and EuroHPC, fostering synergies, avoiding duplication, and ensuring sustainable impact. A representative community structure would help establish a clearer and more transparent channel of communication with European institutions, addressing the lack of visibility and coherence that is often perceived today. Critical dependencies also include clarity of mandate and scope, so that participating communities understand whether the collaboration framework is intended for HEP and RA specifically or for a broader cross-domain landscape, and how this common framework accommodates legitimate domain-specific differences.

Cross-priority dependencies: P01 Cross-Infrastructure Governance